Is Avengers: Doomsday Marvel's major comeback?

Of course, we want to talk about a big topic that is dear to a lot of people's hearts, at least here at Fox 35, that's for sure. All of our film fanatics are extremely excited about Marvel dropping the Avengers Doomsday official trailer today, a very exciting time for all of those people who are interested in that. And joining us now, we actually have a film critic who's joining us, Jesse Hassinger. Jesse, thank you so much for being here with us on Florida Live on this Monday afternoon. Thanks so much for having me. Absolutely. Okay. So we have got to get to a lot here because there's a lot of anticipation building behind all of this. So, Jesse, tell me, first of all, what's your initial reaction when you saw the trailer drop? Yeah. To be honest, my initial reaction, I think a lot of my critic colleagues felt similar, was a sense of, there's a little bit of desperation, I think you can see a little bit in this trailer, a little bit of fervent desire to make things like they were back in the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame days of now, almost seven years ago. Wow. Okay. In that time, was there anything that you were, I guess, surprised by when it comes to what was included in this trailer? I'm sort of, not to sound like a total grump, but I was surprised by how little the movie was able to show me that felt new. As much as this feels like it should be a very new thing with Robert Downey Jr. coming back to the series in a completely different role, a whole lot of characters that we haven't seen kind of team up before. They're bringing in the X-Men characters from the earlier Fox movies, which were not part of the official Marvel universe. And yet it really kind of looks to me like a rehash of Infinity War, right down to Captain America and Thor kind of looking like they do when they give us the same haircuts they had in that movie, just so you know, it's going to be like that movie. So there was not a lot about it that mostly surprised me was that how not surprising it looks to be honest. Oh man. Well, that's a letdown. Okay. So talk to me about this, the co-director Joe Russo said that he's, um, they're treating this like phase zero, if you will, and kind of starting from scratch. So looking at the action packed trailer, do you think that it's possible at all to give the audience a clean slate or is the film just too way down by the backstory here? Yeah, it's got a lot of characters for something that's starting from scratch when, when they started from scratch, you know, in 2008 with Iron Man or even with the 2012, the first Avengers movie, you were starting with six superheroes teaming up, which I love those first two Avengers movies are so much fun. And I'm a little confused about why they didn't sort of start with, okay, let's do an Avengers movie. Now that's with different, a different group of six teaming up instead, it seems to be everybody is going to be in this movie at the same time. I do wonder if it's how accessible this is to general audiences. Although I think people will see the upside is that people will see lots of different characters they like and say, oh, I know Cyclops from X-Men or I know the Thunderbolts or I know Thor, you know, they'll want to see the movie, but it's, it's hard to start over at your, you know, something like your 40th movie and say, okay, we're kind of starting over in, in from scratch. I would love it if they pulled it off and did kind of, you know, get a harder reset. Yeah, I would too. Now, you know, obviously in my household, I can, I can speak to that. My husband is a huge Marvel fan. I'm not too much of a movie goer myself. So going into a film like this, let's talk for a second about the people who may not have kept up with all of these movies over the years for someone like myself, if I'm going into the movie theater to see this one, what can I expect or would you just not even encourage someone like me to go in and try to jump in and find my footing in a movie like this? I think the kind of upside to some of the troubles Marvel has had in recent years with sort of less, you know, more, more uneven output is that it is not probably going to be something where you, they're going to expect you to have seen 12 movies before this. Um, they, they even sounds like they kind of assume that people will have seen the Avengers end game. Wouldn't be on the one, the big team up one that came out seven years ago and that maybe they won't have seen a lot of the stuff since then. Um, but yeah, I, I, you know, I think there, I could certainly recommend some that I would say, Oh, it might make sense to watch Thunderbolts. That seems like those characters are in this and they sort of interact with the Avengers and also our characters that are, you know, have appeared before. Um, but I really don't know. It's really hard to say. I, you know, I'm sure though, as the release date draws closer, there'll be lots of people publishing here's what to watch before. Um, but it really does kind of feel like it could be anything from watch 50 movies to watch. No, none, none, no movies. Okay. So Jesse, I know that when it comes to, um, film critics and the film community, if you will, that a lot of people have been sounding off about this. So tell me what are people in your circle kind of talking about and saying about this is everyone kind of the same mindset as you, or is there a little inner conflict? I think a lot of us, you know, in contrary to a lot of assumptions about film critics, a lot of critics go into these things hoping that we'd much rather go and watch a movie that we enjoy, uh, than, than not, um, I would much rather this turns out to be much more fun than it, than it looks, then, then, then I turn out to be right and say, Oh yeah, it's kind of nothing new, but I think there are a lot of people who in my line of work who kind of feel like, wow, this feels like they really, really want people to come back in the biggest numbers possible. And I just think that, you know, I think the consensus from a lot of us is these things would probably be a little more fun even if they were just a little smaller, a little more focused rather than trying to say, we've got every superhero you could ever think of. I don't need a movie to give me every superhero I could ever think of. I would rather just watch one that has, you know, four or five really cool characters or really interesting characters. But I don't know. I'm sure there's some, we're all, we'll all see it for sure. So it's, you know, that, that, that will certainly happen regardless. Okay. Also talk to me about this, Jesse, because Marvel, they put out tickets on sale as well. This is pretty early, right? I mean, the release date is December 18th. So what does this say about this aggressive, unusually early rollout? What do you think this is telling us about the studios? Again, I think there's a feeling of wanting to capture a sense of this is a really big event. And I think they saw what the Odyssey, there were some trailers, some tickets that went on sale a year ahead, a year ago that people are now able to, I guess, actually use the movies out. And there is a kind of desire to be seen as something that is a big enough event that someone would want to buy tickets, you know, almost six months ahead of time. And some people will. And I think with the large formats that people are trying to see these things in, although Avengers won't be in IMAX, they'll still want to secure, you know, opening night tickets up there at their favorite, at the theater they like the best or that has the best picture and sound and all that. In some ways, it's kind of good that people are that excited about movie going, but it's also kind of crazy to be buying your movie tickets in July for a movie in December. You're right about that, fan or no fan. Well, Jesse Hassinger, we certainly appreciate you for joining us here on Florida Live, giving your input. Always a pleasure. Thanks for joining us. Thanks so much. Have a good day. Absolutely. All right. Well, that gives us a little more insight again. A lot of people talking about this, the big movie dropping its trailer today. Ticket sales already open for all the fans who are eager, a little too eager, maybe to get those tickets for the December release date. Put it up. We'll have you know when that happens. If you're watching the movie. Thanks again. Bye.